


Rising Suns

by chatcolat



Category: Original Work
Genre: Cephalopods, Fantasy Politics, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pining, Romance, Worldbuilding, alien planets, dumb nerd in love with soft jock, royalty romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 18:05:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17812850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chatcolat/pseuds/chatcolat
Summary: The second sun of Moltay hadn't yet risen above the horizon, but the palace was in uproar. The prince's ship was due back from the other side of the world at any time.Usually Alexei would be as interested as anyone to know the results of the peace talks. And yet, he was sprawled on the marble edge of the octopi pond, watching iridescent cephalopods scuttle about beneath the waves, and wishing he didn't have to deal with upcoming exams, familial expectations, and his rather unbearable feelings for his prince.





	Rising Suns

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OliTheOlive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OliTheOlive/gifts).



The second sun of Moltay hadn't yet risen above the horizon, but the palace was in uproar. The prince's ship was due back from the other side of the world at any time, signaling the end to two years of diplomatic talks between the Biji and Yara, empires that composed nearly half the planet. Usually Alexei would be as interested as anyone to know the results of the peace talks. As both the son of the minister of finance and a student of Moltaian diplomacy, this was right up his alley.

  
And yet, instead of following the example set by the rest of the court, he was sprawled on the marble edge of the octopi pond, watching iridescent cephalopods scuttle about beneath the waves. Alexei often sat here and wished he were a cephalopod who didn't have to deal with upcoming exams, familial expectations, and his rather inexplicable feelings for his prince. Octopi didn't have to deal with any of this, being solitary beings lacking social structure.

  
"Of course I'd find you here."

  
Alexei didn't need to open his eyes to know the person blocking the faint light of the first sun was the much-awaited prince. He didn't open his eyes out of spite, just sighed.

  
Prince Xerxes laughed, and Alexei was forced to fight the urge to give in and watch the way happiness seemed to dance so effortlessly across his face – like an octopus through the water. Xerxes had been gone for two years without so much as a missive sent back. It was expected, really. It's not like they were promised to each other.

  
"Are you ignoring me?" Xerxes asked when Alexei refused him the attention he obviously wanted.

  
"Oh, I'm sorry, are you talking to me?" he asked back. He knew he shouldn't, but just in case, he let an arm that had been resting on his stomach slid off into the water, quietly exposing the length of his body. He cracked an eye open to see if Xerxes noticed, but the backlit halo of the sun obscured his face.

  
On Xerxes's long list of lovers, Alexei was the only one who fit the particular description of scrawny and male. It had been said by many a national tabloid that the beloved prince of the Bijik Empire was very much attracted to soft-bodied women, particularly those with curly hair. Alexei did have curly hair and technically his stomach was really soft. He also just happened to have awkwardly knobby joints from a growth spurt he never fully grew into.

  
"Is this about not writing letters? Because Sura already yelled at me."

  
Alexei snorted and closed his eye again.

  
Xerxes let out a sigh. "I'm sorry, okay. I just don't really like writing letters."

  
"That's fine. I don’t really like talking to princes before the second sun is up," Alexei said. An octopus nudged his hand, slowly curling around it and then propelling away.

  
"Suns. Really?" Alexei didn't need to open his eyes. He could hear the eyeroll in Xerxes's voice.

  
"Really. It's much to early too commune with anything dumber that a cephalopod."

  
"A what?"

  
"A fucking octopus. Really?" How could he be this in love with someone who didn't know the national animal of his own kingdom?

  
Their brief romance had been mostly secret. Partially because Alexei knew his parents didn’t approve of casual dating, partially because a boy like Xerxes didn't take dating a boy like Alexei seriously. When Alexei was being honest with himself, he would admit that dating was a generous word for their relationship, since it had consisted mostly of experimental, late-night rendezvous that no one but Princess Sura knew about, and Sura only knew because of her friendship with Alexei from the democratic Moltaian societies class they took when they were twelve.

  
Alexei knew that anything resembling a relationship that they had previously had was off the table, as Xerxes was expected to get married after his official coronation next month. The lucky noble hadn't been announced, but it was rumored to be someone he met in Yara. Alexei was now just a booty call for those nights when the soon-to-be crowned prince was feeling particularly into giraffe men. Alexei should be grateful he was getting any time with the prince now.  
"Are you really that mad at me?"

  
See, this was the problem with Xerxes – Xerx to most of the other young, virile youth of the court. He could be a complete asshole but be so genuinely offended when you called him out on it. Then he would do something so painfully sweet you would forgive him without a second thought.

  
So when Alexei sighed and said, "No," as he tried to sit up, he wasn't all that surprised to find himself suddenly pushed back down by a pair of soft and eager lips. Xerxes was a particularly good kisser. Alexei would be a liar if he didn't admit that he had been dreaming about exactly this every night for two years, but the location was poorly chosen. Before he could properly grab hold of the prince, Alexei lost his balance on the smooth marble and tumbled into the octopus pond.

  
"Alexei!"

  
Now would be an excellent time to become a cephalopod, Alexei wished as he hit the rocky bottom of the pond. It wasn't deep and he could swim, but shame made him want to sit at the bottom of the pond until everyone alive to remember him was dead and he could graciously emerge without the shame of falling into the kingdom's most sacred octopus pond while being kissed by the kingdom's most precious hunk.

  
Except he could already see through the water that Xerx was above him, taking off his shirt to jump in after him. Heroic and hot. Not fair.

  
Alexei pushed off the bottom and came up for air just in time.

  
"Suns, I thought you had drowned," Xerx said, extending a hand.

  
"Just in shame," Alexei muttered, taking it.

  
Xerxes pulled him up and into his arms. His chest was warm, despite only being exposed to the light of the first sun.

  
"You're so dramatic," Xerxes said. When he laughed, his torso shook. Alexei closed his eyes and wished he were the rays of the sun so he could unapologetically run his fingers over every inch of exposed skin and let it pull him in, sinking in below the surface with its ever present tan.

  
"Are you hurt?"

  
Alexei straightened up and moved back. "I'm fine. Welcome home," he said, remembering at least some of his courtly manners now that he had thoroughly embarrassed himself.

  
"Thanks, it's good to be home."

  
They stood there in silence, each trying to come up with something more to say until Alexei couldn't stand the water dripping from his robes anymore.

  
"I'm going to go change before your party," he said. He started to turn away when Xerxes grabbed his arm.

  
"Can we talk tonight? After the party?"

  
He should say no. He should make it clear that he didn’t want to keep up this casual relationship, that casual sex did nothing but cause him anxiety, but saying he didn't want it would be the biggest lie he had ever told – and he was the son of the minister of finance!

  
"Sure," he replied. Then, with just enough contempt, he bowed and added, "Your majesty."

  
Xerxes rolled his eyes and flipped him off. As Alexei walked away, he tried not to think about those fingers.

* * *

 

"He brought back an entire nest of spies," Sura was complaining as a handmaid gently applied a layer of gold powder to her forehead and the hollows beneath her cheekbones.

  
"What did you expect? Wasn't he staying with your mother's family?" It was well accepted that the former Queen had hated the King, and her sentiment was shared by her entire Yaran clan. There was a huge hullabaloo over their divorce a decade prior, which the Queen returned to Yara, cursing the King. The Bijik Royal convoy had spent the last two years trying to make sure no war broke out before the mixed-raced heir to the Bijik throne ascended.

  
"Yes, but against me? I have four new Yaran guards. Four. Am I so untrustworthy?"

  
Alexei shrugged, then laughed at the face she made.

  
"Stop moving please, Miss Sura," the handmaid commanded with far more condemnation than any of his own servants would ever show him. Sura had a way with people, specifically common people. It was no surprise that Xerxes would see her as a possible threat, but Alexei knew she would never betray him. For all she liked to complain, the chaos she strove to create and control was usually limited to the university grounds.

  
"Sorry, Chichi," she said to the servant. "I just thought things might be different with Xerx coming into power. Mother used to say in Yara the government doesn't monitor personal communications, even among the court!"

  
Alexei didn't want to point out that Yara had also had fewer coups in the last two generations as well, but he understood her point. The King was a terrifying man, not only to his people but even his own children. Xerxes hated him, a point he rarely shared outside the company of his closest group of friends – and Alexei, though that was only because Alexei happened to be present when news of the Arriva Mine union workers execution came through.

  
Sura, on the other hand, was a bit of a radical and everyone knew it. It wasn't surprising that Xerxes had Yaran spies following her around, even if it was a shitty thing to do to your little sister.

  
"What naughty things are you sending to someone that you don't want to be monitored?" Alexei teased, trying to steer the topic in a different direction. Sura also struggled to realize that not everyone could so openly talk against her father as she could.

  
Sura turned pink under her gold paint. "Nothing like that."

  
Alexei wiggled his eyebrows in a way that said sure but didn't press the subject.

  
"By the way, I heard you ran into Xerx this morning," she giggled, flipping the script.

  
Alexei rolled his eyes. "Don't remind me."

  
"You didn't dump him, did you?" she scolded.

  
"I can't dump him if we're not even together," he pointed out. "I just didn't know how to naturally bring up that I have no interest in becoming a concubine."  
Chichi snorted. Alexei glared at her. Sura let her maids get away with too much.

  
"Right, right," Sura waved off. "Look, I can talk to him tonight if you want."

  
"No, no. It's my problem. I'll deal with it."

* * *

 

Alexei and Sura escorted each other to the ball dressed as the rising and setting suns, Sura wrapped in a deep indigo fabric with gold embroidery and Alexei in a light blue with rose-gold trim. Their faces were decorated with heavy brushes of golden paint and jewelry hung from their ears, noses, and necks.

  
"You know," Sura began as they descended the steps to the main hall in chorus of whispers and light applause. "You could always do the opposite."

  
Alexei gave a courteous nod to a crowd of journalists who snapped photos for tomorrow's gossip magazines. "Excuse me?" he murmured back to Sura.

  
"You could seduce Xerx," she said through her smile.

  
"I think I already have, Su. Hence the sleeping with him."

  
"Well, yes, but I mean romantically seduce him. Get him to want you as more than just a bed warmer."

  
"Ouch, thanks," Alexei said through clenched teeth. He tried not to let his irritation show on his face. Not in front of this many people. Maybe when they were off these awful stairs.

  
"Well, you obviously have feelings beyond playmates. Who's to say he doesn't either?"

  
Sura was very good at keeping up her courtly smile. She waved and nodded to someone during their painfully slow procession. Alexei took a deep breath and tried to look the part of a minister's son.

  
"I thought you hated the idea of me and your brother?" he whispered when he was sure no one was close enough to overhear again.

  
"Well, I did. I do. But it could be useful."

  
"Doesn't matter. He prefers female romantic partners.”

  
"Pft. Are you referring to his obsession with Cassidane? I don't think that set a particular precedent."

  
This incident with Cassidane, daughter of the Minister of War and arguably most beautiful being in all Biji, was not so small to be brushed off. For three years, Xerxes had very publicly pined for her, only for her to very publicly declare her love of music would always triumph over her love of the human form and enter a convent. This obsession had overlapped with the beginnings of their fling for a year, with Xerxes moving to Yara the next year.

  
"Can you not be so flippant, please?"

  
"I just want you to be happy, Lexi. One of us should be."

  
She was referring to the spies. Alexei felt bad for not realizing how much they bothered her. As a courtier, he was used to being under constant scrutiny.

  
"He'll realize soon enough that you're on his side," he tried to reassure her. For the first time her smile slipped. He squeezed her hand.

  
"Yeah, let's hope so."

  
When Xerxes arrived, the room changed. Gone were the dignified airs of polite courtly behavior, replaced with the fervor and excitement of people longing to see their future. For Xerxes was their future, and he played the part well. Dressed in cream silks embroidered with gold thread, his bronze skin shone with oil and his face was highlighted in the same gold paint Sura used. His brow was anointed with a circlet of suns, made brighter by his dark curls, and a golden cape of rank trailed behind him like rays of light. If Alexei and Sura were the suns' rise and set, Xerxes was their full, mid-day glory. He was beautiful.

  
Alexei knew he wouldn't get a chance to talk with him during the party, no matter how much he longed to, no matter how distracting he was, constantly shining just out of reach. He tried to block it out, dancing with a few young sons of industry and the son the Minister of Education, Ilya. They were both from the northern region of Biji and frequently bonded over their love of literature.

  
It wasn't until the night was near over, and he was enjoying a cooling drink of wine and watching Sura teach a group of Yaran diplomats the latest Bijik dance trends, that a toned arm wrapped around Alexei and pulled him to the dance floor. It took all of his strength not to lean into the Prince's touch and let himself be led about like a pet.

  
Xerxes spun him around until they were facing, a devilish smile on his face. Alexei rolled his eyes, letting it be clear he wouldn't be so easily seduced. Xerxes shrugged his smile softening but not disappearing as he pulled Alexei closer. 

  
"Are you still angry about this morning?" he asked softly. "I truly didn't intend for you to fall into the pond."

  
"I'm not angry," Alexei replied, seizing control of the dance. It was a northern number and he would be damned if anyone led better than himself. Xerxes didn't seem to mind.

  
"You haven't looked at me once all night," Xerxes pouted. Except, a pout on a face like his tended to look more like smirk.

  
"How would you know?"

  
"Because I've been looking at you." Xerxes voice was barely a whisper and it sent shivers down Alexei's spine. Don't fall for his half-assed flirting, the voice inside his head commanded.

  
Too late! exclaimed another. Suns, he was beautiful this close up. The shimmering oil on his skin caught the eye, making it take effort for Alexei to keep his eyes from wandering down, down the taut muscle of his abdomen to where the fabric of his skirt bunched around his waist. He wanted to look. To touch. To pull at the knots that held the fabric up.

  
"Save your flattery for someone who cares," Alexei said, refusing to move his eyes from somewhere above Xerxes's shoulder.

  
"Don't you?" It didn't sound as pompous as it should. In fact, it sounded hurt. Alexei's eyes darted over, searching his face. Xerxes was hurt.

  
"Does it matter?" he asked. Did he sound as weak as he felt?

  
"It does," Xerxes said, definite, pleading.

  
Alexei froze. Xerxes nearly tripped over him and another couple collided with them.

  
"I'm sorry," Xerxes apologized. For what? For stepping on his foot? For leading him on for all these years? For leaving?

  
"I need to go," Alexei said, pulling away and making for the nearest door. It was late enough in the evening that no one would notice or be sober enough to remember his leaving in the morning.

  
Halfway down a side hallway he heard, "Wait!"

  
And Xerxes hand was around his bare forearm, warm and strong.

  
"Wait, please," his voice wavered in a way that would have meant sincerity on the lips of anyone else. And now he was thinking about his lips. And now he was turning. And now he was looking into those eyes. They were pleading.

  
"What do you want?" he asked. He begged. Did he sound so desperate?

  
"To apologize, for starters," Xerxes said. "To maybe ask you something less proper if you forgive me."

  
"I can't keep doing this."

"Doing what?"

"Waiting around for you to remember I exist!" he snapped.

Xerx was taken aback. "I… I always remember you exist, Lexi."

Alexei snorted. "Please."

"I didn't stop thinking about you once, for two years."

He didn't want to believe, the logical part of his brain was just repeatedly screaming no, don't fall for this! But another part of him was asking why the hell not? Because there was Xerxes, future king of Biji, looking at him with those gorgeous golden eyes and saying the things he had wanted him to say since he was a boy.

"I haven’t been the best of boyfriends," Xerxes started, tugging Alexei's hands into his own. "And for that I'm sorry. I haven't treated you the way you deserve. I've learned a lot these past two years, one thing being that I don't really want to be without you anymore."

Alexei briefly considered that maybe he was high. Perhaps something had been slipped into his drink and that something was making him hallucinate. Then, almost as soon as that thought appeared, it was replaced with the idea that maybe this was all a huge joke. One of Xerx's friends would jump out from behind a pillar and shout something obscene and they would both laugh at how dumb and gullible he was.

But the problem with both of those ideas was that one look at Xerxes's face showed they were both untrue. Xerxes was a horrible liar – a dangerous problem in his line of work, but something that Alexei had always found rather endearing. It was possible that he had some coaching on it the past two years in Yara, but of all things to use it on, this would not be it. Right?

"What are you saying?" he asked, for clarity's sake. His stomach was tying itself into knots, writhing like the tentacles of the cephalopods carved into the walls around them.

"I'm asking you to give me another chance," Xerxes confessed. "Please, Lexi. I'm about 98% sure that I'm madly, helplessly in love with you."

"Wh… what about Cassidane?"

Xerxes suddenly barked out a laugh, then glanced around to make sure that no one was around to hear him. "What about her?"

"You love her. You always say you love her."

"Maybe when I was a youth, but not since we've been together. Not seriously anyways. Maybe a few times when I felt you weren't giving me enough attention."

Alexei couldn't imagine Xerxes feeling like he wasn't getting enough of his attention because for years, Xerxes had been the only thing he could think about. His incredulity must have shown on his face because then Xerx was adding, "You didn't know? I thought you were just being your usual coy self, but you mean… you didn't know?"

"You didn't even write me!"

"Because who do you think reads the correspondence?"

Alexei paled. "Did… he read our-"

"Yes. I got a lecture about it before I left. I didn't want to put you in a tough spot when I wasn't here to keep you out of harms way. You are particularly gifted at that on your own, without adding the ire of my father."

Alexei leaned against the pillar, the horror of the king reading through his personal correspondence with the prince coursing through his veins. Xerxes still held on to his hands, though, warming them, keeping him grounded.

"Lexi," he began again, soft and worried. "Lexi did you really think this whole time I didn't love you?"

"What was I supposed to think? You went straight from bullying me to-"

"Suns, what you must think of me." Xerxes pulled one of his hands free to rub over his face. "You must think me the most callous asshole to have ever lived."

"I think I'm much too lucky to have you-"

The words had barely left his mouth before Xerxes was pulling him close to his bare chest, enveloping him in his warmth.

"I'm sorry, Lexi. I'm so sorry. I hadn't meant to lead you on that way. I had all this planned out, how I would return and steal you away from someone else's arms and romance you like I knew I should have, but I never thought… I never thought you would have spent this whole time thinking I wouldn't."  
Alexei didn't want to respond, because to respond would mean turning his head, moving his lips from their fragile perch on Xerxes collarbone. "It's not to say I didn't hope."

Xerxes grip only tightened, those strong warrior's arms burning against his skin. The smell of the bigali perfume mixed with sweat mixed with the sticky sweet of the kala oil in his hair. It shimmered in the light.

"Come on," Xerxes murmured after a moment. "Let's get out of the hallway."

Alexei said nothing, just let Xerxes tug him by the hand and lead him away. He would follow him anywhere. It was a character flaw for sure, one he strove to rectify anytime he was away from Xerxes, but theory wasn't the same as practice.

Xerxes didn't lead him to a bedroom however, but instead another octopi pond. This one was filled with the midnight's gift breed, named for their dark blue flesh that shimmered as gold as starlight when caught by any luminescence. It was a familiar place. They had shared their first kiss here, drunk and young and foolish.  
Xerxes had shoved him in it the next day to get a laugh out of his friends.

Alexei didn't want to think he was still that young and foolish, that he would wind up swimming again tomorrow, but here he was, risking it. Maybe something was wrong with him and that's why he repeatedly came back for more.

"Why here?" he asked as Xerxes found one of the stone alcoves, hidden from prying eyes by discreetly planted reeds. Their view of the moons on the pond was unhindered, but the designers of old must have been a passionate lot because these sorts of beautiful views hidden from prying eyes decorated all the grounds.  
Xerxes golden eyes almost glowed out in the moonlight as he settled onto the bench and leaned back against the wall. "Because this is where we first kissed. Don't you remember?"

Alexei let a small laugh escape as he was pulled down onto Xerxes lap, pushing the skirts of his robes aside.  
"Yes, but I'm surprised you do! You were really drunk."

Xerxes shrugged. "I was mostly nervous. It had that effect. I was scared you would say no."

"Pft. Who could?"

And Xerxes was kissing him again, this time with a little more purpose. There was no falling into the pond this time, not without taking Xerxes with him, for the prince's arms held Alexei tight to him, breathing him in like he was the air itself.

After awhile, the separated, breathing hard but eyes alight.

"I'm sorry," Xerxes whispered. "I missed you."

Alexei couldn't be sure if he was sorry for not writing, sorry for how complicated their relationship had been in the past, or sorry for how breathless they both were now. It didn't matter. In response, he leaned forward and placed another, softer, sweeter kiss on those sweet lips.

"I missed you, too."

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wrote this as both an exercise in worldbuilding and because I wanted an excuse to write something royal and romantic after reading some of Oli's work. This is ridiculously saccharine and very off-brand for me, but so much fun.


End file.
